Study detailed tour

Last week I shared my living room detailed tour, you can check it out here if you missed it. Well this weeks addition features my study. It is a room off of the living room. I believe it is designed as the formal dining room. But we do not use it as that for a few reasons. One, you can see the dining room table from this room. Two tables that close is not needed. Reason number two is, we have a really big dining room table that seats 6 and it fits perfectly fine in the breakfast nook off of the kitchen. And three, we are not a formal kind of people. Maybe eventually when I have all of my kids and their spouses over for dinners or very adult like dinner parties we will. But for now, this room is our study. We use it as my office, the kids library, music room, and art table room. It gets it’s use for sure. Instead of a formal space, we finger paint and jam on guitars. That is the kind of house we are.

We made this book shelf out of an old spool.
The full tutorial is here

This room has gone through a few transformations already. We had a piano, which we got rid of. A long book shelf. We broke the shelf down and turned it into the kids art table. Oh yeah, for my new readers that tutorial can be found here. Yes, I am just shamelessly plugging my old projects. No, not really. This room has just had a lot of projects needed to make it work. There is only one solid wall, and it is a walkway from the hallway and living room into the dining room and kitchen. So it needs to not be congested with stuff. It is a logistics nightmare with function and visual appeal. Balancing the two is hard sometimes. This is a very kid friendly room, and it gets a lot of use. But it is seen from the front door and entryway so I want there to be a formal feel to it. Not too formal, but enough where it feels like part of the home and not a storage closet of stuff. Oh yeah, I just remembered right after we moved in this was the kids play room. That lasted long enough to find toys in the drawer under the stove, well toys everywhere really. The playroom got moved into the basement where their toys now happily reside in a mess out of sight. Hey, out of sight our of mind right? See a lot of transformations.

this was found at a flea marker and was used, as I think a drawer insert. Possibly

this rug and bench make me happy. The pouf the kids jump off of.
There is also baskets under the bench with puzzles for the kids

This wall behind the bench is going to be getting an overhaul. I have zero, zip, none, nada going on right now here. It has plans. I am going to probably put some kind of wood planks on the wall. The board and batten from the hallway meets up on this corner so adding a little wood detailing here will be nice. As far as style, size, color, or even direction the planks will go I don’t know yet. I will be finalizing this soon. Hopefully. We are in outdoor mode right now so this might be pushed back until the fall. I hope not. But that outdoor furniture will not paint itself, and I want them done before summer is over. This rug I get so many compliments on. I got it at Wal-mart in the clearance section. Crazy!

I got these pillows all from etsy. Various stores, that site is so addicting and my husband sweats every time I log in there. It means I am spending some money. The bird one is from Target. I mean Targey, it sounds super classy that way. Who I am kidding, Target is awesome I don’t need to class up that place.

This room is a rainbow of color. We have a little turquoise, some yellow, orange, red, dark blue, and coral. I have heard there is a three color rule in a room. Yeah, this room is all about breaking the rules. I mean we draw on table tops in this room. Well chalkboard topped tables but still, it is all about rebelling here. I think it works. This was a predominantly turquoise and gray room just like the living room, The curtains in here were a shorter version of the ones in the living room. Then while visiting my Grandma she gave me a painting she did. A gorgeous, huge painting of trees with oranges and reds in it. Well the painting was here to stay so the whole room changed. I brought in more colors and I love it. I thought because it is visible from the living room they needed to match. But the slight color changes make the room feel separate. Also this is the kids hang out room and some huge pops of color just fit with it. This is one of my all time favorite rooms.

my Grandmas painting showcased front and center

this was given to me by my Dad and step mom. I love it

love these stools, purchased at World Market

I spend my kids nap time sitting at this desk. Blogging away for you lovely people. And also a little bit of random YouTube watching, blog hopping and celebrity gossip reading. Just a little. Some of it is research, so see work gets done too. In the long run this spot will be overtaken by my kids who will be doing homework here. I like the idea of there being a family computer, where we can help, be involved and monitor their each and every movement. Helicopter parents anyone? Me with my kids using the internet, uh yeah. Thank goodness my kids are not there yet. I will most likely have to move my quiet little corner of the study into our master bedroom or something, getting a laptop and holing up in my comfy bed to waste time… uh I mean work. I wont get any work done and my kids wont nap if my only usable computer is smack dab in the middle of the study. They will be bothering me and begging when I am done so they can play some game on the computer. It is coming, that I am sure. But for now it is all mine!

yes this is a outdoor patio chair from Target. It is temporary. I needed a chair with arms and this was all I could find that was not really expensive. I am on the look out for something better, for decor sake and my backs sake.

who does not love some fresh flowers, Me!

Over at the kids art center there is a lot of little details that turn this room into a kids dream. My kids spend so much time here being creative. I love it. I purchased a old window pane and use it as my kids art display, we each painted our hand prints on canvas with the date and their age. It is a cute little corner of this room that has my whole heart. I love those little hands. The kids use three stools purchased from The World Market and a long old barn bench I purchased at a flea market and painted Turquoise. I also bought a wooden crate, painted it and that is where the kids paper, coloring books, and stickers are stored. Well when they are not spread out all over the table. Oh lastly we have a wall light purchased from Ikea for the kids to use. They love being able to turn it on when they need it. This art center was the best thing I have ever done for them. Nora was asked to write in school what her favorite thing to do at home is and she said “sit at the art table”. I use it a lot for crafts also. The stools and table are at a height where adults can sit comfortably, so my kids wont outgrow it. I can see them all doing homework here one day. For now they cut paper into small minuscule pieces that I can never fully clean up, cutting now… homework later.

The saying on the canvas

“One was not enough…”

“Two was almost there…”

“Three was just right”

Some say the kitchen is the heart of the home. Really this room is, we spend quiet time here. We have family art projects, get lost in books, have jam sessions with the guitars. They are not just for looking but playing. This is the room where music is almost always being played either by the aforementioned guitars or by my trusty iTunes. This is our heart. A random room meant to be formal is the place where my family comes together. Who knew!

the storage crate

All right, lets be real this is how it looks most of the time. Hey people, creativity is not a neat and organized thing. Let the mess fly, but a clean up every few days is a rule too. It can get out of hand

the one who uses the art table most, my creative mini me Nora

just chillin and jammin

my boys having some quiet time together

I think for next weeks edition of detailed house tours I will take you all outside. Since I am constantly being called to enjoy my yard I will share it all with you. Until then, have a wonderful weekend!

8 Comments

Thank you so much. That gray round thing is a pouf that has seen better days. When I got it, it was perky and taller. My kids jump off and on it. I will be replacing it with something a little more sturdy. And more long term kid proof!